OCTOPUS OCEAN

All hail the weirdly alien cephalopods: dreamers, unsurpassed escape artists, and among the smartest creatures on the planet.

Noting that even as he was writing this book, researchers were continuing to make new discoveries about octopuses and their squid and cuttlefish cousins, Leiren-Young nonetheless forges ahead to introduce representative members of the cephalopod clan and to explore their distinctive qualities and capabilities. In addition to celebrating their vaunted ability to camouflage themselves and to escape from captivity (one Auckland overachiever, dubbed Rambo, even learned how to use a waterproof camera), he points to evidence that they are at least as smart as chimps and dolphins, that they may dream, and that, with fantastically sensitive sensors in their arms, they can tell if what they touch is “friend, foe or food” and even detect light and color. The author attempts to remain nonjudgmental about the consumption of octopuses; after all, he writes, “any animal that can eat an octopus will,” including other octopuses. Still, he emphasizes the controversy around farming them, and to counter anthropodenial (the assumption that animals don’t have emotions or intelligence), he urges readers to use gendered pronouns when thinking about them. From the giant Pacific octopus and a “squid squad” to a fingertip-size wolfi and the “adorable” dumbo, specimens undulate fetchingly across natural settings in the heavy suite of stock photos.

An unusually lively meet and greet—stimulating and informative.